Chronography: animal is a live electro-acoustic work based on field recordings that Jay Needham gathered in Antarctica in 2009. For this work, antique gramophone horns have been re-purposed and are now used as amplified instruments, percussive bells that resonate, clang and chime. It is the traveling of these sound machines into the wilds that initially fascinated Needham and eventually lead him to create sound sculptures that often times blur the line between musical instruments and scientific apparatus. For listeners, the work is intended as an audible exploration, a pseudo–scientific demonstration where the sounds of ship propellers, penguin colonies and ice fractures gather to express an epistemology of field recordings and the role that sound technologies have played in exploration and musical performance. Chronography: animal is conceived of as a bridge to connect practices of improvised music and sound art that evokes a sense of place.